Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate – Monistic Theory (Cumbancha, 2016)
It struck me at the time of their first recording Faya (2014) that you couldn’t come across a more unlikely collaboration, but guitarist and vocalist Joe Driscoll and kora player and vocalist Sekou Kouyate seemed to effortlessly incinerate any cultural backgrounds, musical styles and language barriers on that first recording out on the Cumbancha Discovery label. Well, Mr. Driscoll and Mr. Kouyate have done it once again with their latest Monistic Theory set for release on May 13th on the Cumbancha label. The result is just as captivating and as a pleasurable ride as Faya.
Mr. Driscoll explains the collaboration, “Our styles are totally different but complementary. It’s like putting baking soda and vinegar together.”
That bubbling over of styles of Mr. Driscoll’s catchy folk, funk and hip-hop blend and guitar expertise against the Guinean roots of Mr. Kouyate’s charmed vocals and utterly magical kora playing seems to be just the point of Monistic Theory in that “the concept that reality is a unified whole and that all existing things can be ascribed to or described by a single concept or system.”
Mr. Driscoll and Mr. Kouyate blaze through that commonality of music without ever losing their own musical identity. It’s impossible not to fall victim to the fiery blend Mr. Driscoll’s razor edged vocals and the flurry of Mr. Kouyate’s kora lines.
Monistic Theory sets up a wide open, infectious groove with instrumental opening “Tamala,” before giving way to the meaty “Just Live” and the breezy feel of “Tokira.”
Keeping the feel clean, without lapsing into over production, Monistic Theory relies on collaborators bassist John Railton, drummer James Breen and percussionist Tim Short to fill out the sound.
Title track “Monistic Theory,” pairing a smooth groove with a kickass rap is delicious, as are the offerings of “Batafa” and “Wama.” Listeners get a treat with “Master Blaster,” a live performance track that simply sums up the extraordinariness of this duo.
The collaboration between Mr. Driscoll and Mr. Kouyate comes across as easy and why shouldn’t it when as Mr. Driscoll recounts, “I met Sekou, and I said, ‘Hey man, let’s work on this for a while.’ It was one of those ‘follow the river’ things, and I went with it.”
If only all collaborations could be that easy and that damn good.
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Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
